Friday, May 29, 2009

A few weeks back I wrote about Time Management. Setting a goal, keeping with a schedule and staying focused. I was able to complete my 6 Ork Terminator unit and actually finishing two days early. As you can see in the picture they have been given a basic paint job. There are no highlights or shading. I am not one for putting that much effort into my painting. I going to dip this army and that will provide the shading and some highlights. It is going to me a new experience for me dipping these guys. I want to keep them clean and only have the dip run into the low spots on the model. I have a few techniques that I am going to try and if one of them works then these Orks will look great. If not, well they are Orks, they don't have to look that clean.

Since I finished the painting early I am going to take the next few days to get some another projects done. I just received a shipment of Rare Earth Magnets, 750 of the bad boys. I purchased them for the addition to my Orc/Goblin Fantasy army. One of my friends sold my his army however they are not magnetized. So this is going to eat up some time and I will need to make an additional storage box. I just want to get them taken care of before something happens to them, like getting lost in the sea of crap in my hobby room. With this small interruption with my schedule I would say I should have the Ork Terminators dipped and ready for the table in about another week or so.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

So I took some pictures of my Local Friendly Game Shop. It is a fun shop to hang out at and play games. We have eight gaming tables, 8X4. We also have 4 card tables for a variety of different uses. As you can tell from the pictures we have a large selection of GW products. We also carry a good selection of board games and RPG's. It is a fun shop with a great group of loyal customers that help keep the shop up and running.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Its Sunday evening and I just finished painting the arms for my Spork Terminators. Painting is a lot of fun for me and I find it very relaxing. My challenge with painting is finding the time. After working all day I come home and have my daily chores that need to be done. I spend time with my wife and pets, when I look at the clock the day is done and I start my life all over again the next day. So I really have to find time to paint. I remember a friend of mine wrote on his blog (Running From The Law) about time management. I took some time to re-read his post and put his words into action.

So this is what I did. I set a small goal for the week, paint the arms for the Terminator unit. I then looked at my schedule and figured out that I could spend 30 minutes a day painting with the exception of two days. This gives me 2.5 hours a week to paint. Then I took the time that I scheduled and went to work. While painting I did not work on other models, just my goal. I knew my time was limited and I didn't want to waste that time. So I stayed focused on my goal. I found this part hard to do. I have a lot of models on my work bench and they all need to be painted. So to eliminate my distractions I put my other models away so I could not see them. All I had on my bench were the models I wanted to paint. This actually helped me stay focused on my goal. Now the arms are done and my next goal is to paint 3 of the Terminators by next Sunday.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Well today I cleaned and primed my Terminators. Over the next few weeks I will get them painted and ready for dip. While working on these models I noticed, like I notice on a lot of models, the casting lines were real bad. So that led me to bring up a very important modeling tip. No matter how good you can paint, if you don't prepare your models correctly they will look off. The casting lines will stand out and distract from your paint job.

So how do I prepare my models for paint. I start by using cutter to remove the pieces from the casting frame. Then before assembling the model I will clean each piece. I start by removing the excess material from the casting frame. I use different grit modeling files finishing with a very fine grit file. Then I remove the casting lines with a X-acto blade. I do this by running the blade along the casting line. This works great for flat surfaces and must be done with care. You want to make sure not to get carried away and remove too much material. For the other casting lines it depends on how textured the area is that needs to be cleaned. I might use the X-acto blade, a modeling file or a small metal file.

Once I have cleaned the casting lines I start assembling of the model. I make sure that all the pieces line up correctly and glue them together. If the pieces don't line up then I figure why they are not lining up and correct it. If you have every put together a Games Workshop model you know that some of their models have issues. During the assembly process I will be inspecting the model making sure I have removed all the casting lines and remove as needed. When I put two pieces together I run a modeling file over the seams to help hide them. If the seam is too noticeable I will file it with either additional glue, ZAP A GAP, or green stuff. It is a judgment call on how bad the seam is.

Then I will glue the model to the head of a nail. I do this to aid in the painting process. I can hold onto the nail while painting. I can also place the nail in my custom made drying stand. It is a piece of 2X4 with holes drilled in it. I place the nail in one of the holes while the paint dries. This works great for small models, not so much for large models. If you are not going to completely build the model then make sure to glue the nail in a joint that you would not be painting if the model was built. Also, don't use a lot of glue. You need to be able to remove the nail once the model is painted.

After the model is assembled I will put on some basing material and prime the models. You will notice in the picture below I did not glue the arms on the Terminators. I will be able to paint the model completely without the arms getting in the way. After priming the model I will inspect it again looking for anything that I might have missed like casting lines or seams. This is an important step, I would rather catch problems now before I start painting. I find taking the models outside in the sun light provides the best light to find problems. My desk light is too bright and I sometimes miss things.